
Omnivex Does A Lot of Windows-based Digital Signage Networks, And CTO Says They’re On Top Of It
July 19, 2024 by Dave Haynes
When I first learned this morning of the CrowdStrike update that was causing Blue Screens Of Death on computers running Windows (and CrowdStrike security software), I started thinking about the implications for digital signage software vendors that have scores, hundreds or even thousands of endpoints running Microsoft’s operating system.
The company that most comes to mind for me, with respect to digital signage and Windows, is Omnivex. The Toronto-based company has been in the business forever and is a very buttoned-down, IT-centric bunch. I reached out to them to ask how they’re handing all of this, and CTO/Founder Doug Bannister was kind enough to send me a rundown of what’s gone on today.
It has been a busy day that started around 4:30am EST for our DevOps group. The CrowdStrike/Azure situation is a global issue, and many clients run our products on Microsoft technology. Since receiving notice from the vendor and our 24×7 Security Operations Center, we have been proactively working with our customers and partners to ensure their systems are functioning and to help get their digital signage networks back running. Our proactive approach to situations like this ensures that even when a vendor provides a patch/fix, we still test it across all of our systems and environments before coordinating a push to production.
The impact of the CrowdStrike/Azure situation will be wide-reaching. Omnivex provides solutions that use media engines running on many platforms, including Windows and SoC. Some of the upstream web services we utilize with our SaaS product, Omnivex Ink, took a hit, but we had those back online by 10:20am EST. For our on-premise Windows product, Moxie, only a few customers with Windows endpoints needed recovery this morning. For our SaaS product, Ink, clients can run that on pretty much any O/S they like, therefore non-Windows players in the field are not affected and keep running deployed content. Most Ink clients have our hybrid on-prem real-time data stack, so they weren’t affected (in terms of playback) at all by the outage.
While we have our software back online, many of our customers use Omnivex software to integrate and consume data from other systems impacted by this situation. IT departments and operations centers will also need to patch and test these systems to ensure data is getting fed through to the digital signage network.
That last point is interesting. You can be running Windows and be unaffected, but you could also be running Android, Tizen, ChromeOS or something else and still be affected because the data that informs, shapes, trigger or just IS the content for a screen network might be unavailable, because those PCs/servers are blue-screened.
Fun times.
I bet security and IT procedures will be top of the agenda in team meetings on Monday. Security is boring, sure, but nothing gets the attention of decision-makers like outages that feel a bit like extinction events.
I also traded emails with SageNet and Snap Install, two US companies who do IT services and deployment.
IV Dickson of SageNet said the issue has had no impact on its systems and services remain fully operational and secure. He also said SageNet team members are proactively reviewing vendors and subcontractors to identify any potential impacts.
Snap’s Travis Peterson told me: “We are in active communication with our customers to ensure they are aware that we have the necessary support ready in the field and can respond quickly if required. Whether it involves rebooting devices or physical interventions, our team is prepared. We have a strong track record of managing high-volume site operations effectively, even under extremely tight deadlines.”
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